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More NB Facts

-New Brunswick is one of the four Atlantic provinces in Canada.
-Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula is north, the State of Maine is to the west. -It is the third smallest province.
-The province is named for the British royal family of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
-It is called the Loyalist Province.
-New Brunswick is Canada’s only officially bilingual province.
-N.B. has a mainland and many islands.
-Fredericton is the capital city.
-Saint John is the largest city.
-Provincial Flower – Purple Violet, Tree – Balsam Fir, Bird – Black-capped Chickadee
-Motto – “Hope was restored.”

HISTORY

-The first people to live in N.B. include the Micmac and Malecite.
-The Micmac and Malecite hunted and fished and were guides for the French explorers.
-The French mariner Jacques Cartier visited the east coast in 1534.
-In 1604 Samuel de Champlain and the French established the first settlement.
-The French called the east coast area Acadia.
-By 1608 French settlers (called Acadians) were farming around the Bay of Fundy.
-Acadia became an English colony in 1713.
-Some of the people would not swear loyalty to England. Their homes were burned and they were sent away. Some went to Louisiana in the United States.
-Amercan settlers founded the city of Saint John (oldest city in Canada).
-In 1784 the north section of the colony became the new colony of New Brunswick.
-The lumbering industy grew. Shipbuilding was a big industry.
-The ships carried masts and other wood products around the world.
-Thousands came from Ireland after 1846 to work in the lumber industry or to farm.
-On July 1, 1867 New Brunswick became one of the first four provinces of Canada.

WATER AND LAND

-More than half of the province is surrounded by water.
-The east coast faces the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait; The Bay of Fundy
is along the south coast.
-Many bays and inlets along the coasts provide safe harbours for boats.
-There are many rivers in the province.
-The longest river is the St. John River ( 670 km.long).
-The Bay of Fundy between N.B. and Nova Scotia has the world’s highest tides (over 15 metres high).
-Forests (mainly black spruce and fir) cover about 85 percent of N.B.
-The Appalachian Mountains run along the western edge of the province.

RESOURCES/INDUSTRY

-N.B. is the main producer of lead, zinc, copper and bismuth in Canada.
-Gypsum, potash, antimony, silver, gold, natural gas and oil are also mined.
-There are fishing ports where more than fifty kinds of fish and shellfish are caught
(scallops, shrimp, herring, lobsters, snow crabs, mussels, oysters, etc. )
-Lobster is the most valuable catch. Crab is second.
-Aquaculture farms harvest salmon, trout, arctic char, oysters and mussels.
-The main industry is forestry.
-Paper, newspaper, magazines, tissue, wooden doors and windows are made.
-There are livestock, dairy, poultry, potato and berry farms.
-The main crop is potatoes. The St. John River Valley is called the “Potato Belt.”
-Apples, blueberries, strawberries, and cranberries are also grown.
-Fiddleheads (sprouts of the ostrich fern) are gathered in early spring for eating.